Pro-life doctor in South Africa fired for calling a fetus a human being

A doctor in South Africa has been fired and is facing charges of unprofessional conduct after he said to a patient that a fetus is a human being.

In addition to calling a fetus a human, Jacques de Vos told the patient more than two years ago that abortion is the same as killing. He was an intern at the time, working for the gynecology division of 2 Military Hospital in Wynberg. De Vos was fired after the incident and he has been prohibited from practicing medicine, according to Sowetan Life. He is also facing four charges of unprofessional conduct from the Health Professions Council of South Africa.

According to the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, de Vos is accused of having “infringed” the woman’s “autonomy with his anti-abortion utterances.” The hospital reported him to the HPCSA.

De Vos attorney Keith Matthee told the committee last week that certain necessary regulations had not been completed by the council including failing to give the defense the complainant letter and failure to produce copies of witnesses’ written statements. He said this made it tough to prepare a proper defense because they did not have access to important documents that included information on the age of the preborn child in question as well as whether or not an abortion was ever committed.

“I hope that you don’t take this as if we are doubting your integrity,” he told the committee, “It’s just that there has to be some due diligence to ensure that he will receive a fair trial.”

De Vos’ statements were in line with the scientific fact that a new human life begins at fertilization. Human embryos and fetuses are human beings. This is not an opinion. The American College of Pediatricians has this to say about human life:

At fertilization, the human being emerges as a whole, genetically distinct, individuated zygotic living human organism, a member of the species Home sapiens, needing only the proper environment in order to grow and develop. The difference between the individual in its adult stage and in its zygotic stage is one of form, not nature.

Attacks against pro-lifers have been on the rise, and those working in the medical field have been facing discrimination. A pro-life nurse in Vermont was forced to take part in an abortion after her colleagues tricked her. In 2017, three nurses testified that they were forced to take part in abortions or risk losing their jobs with one nurse stating that her supervisor told her “if I didn’t assist, I would be charged with insubordination and abandoning my patient.” And VICE recently published an article by a nurse claiming that pro-lifers should simply not go into healthcare at all.

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